Updating the Clinger-Cohen Competencies for Enterprise Architecture

Transcription

1 Updating the Clinger-Cohen Competencies for Enterprise ure Executive Summary The Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council has been empowered to regularly update the Clinger- Cohen competencies with refreshed views of industry and federal IT practices. In recent years, the success of the Federal Enterprise ure Framework (FEAF) and the Federal Enterprise ure Program Management Office (FEAPMO) in promoting the pervasiveness of enterprise architecture initiatives clearly demonstrates that Enterprise ure (EA) is one of the most critical forces driving Government-wide interoperability, shaping initiatives, and fostering consolidation and reuse of business processes, systems, and technology across the federal IT landscape. The primary purpose of this document is to provide sufficient justification and detail for adding a new competency, Enterprise ure, to the Clinger-Cohen competencies that will reflect critical skills and definitions of the components of Enterprise ures, identify key working relationships, and describe how EA projects are typically structured and staffed across the Federal Government. The content of this paper also proposes competencies and associated learning objectives for EA across federal agencies in Appendix A. A streamlined Federal Government with more federal-wide solutions and systems, and reduced IT acquisition and maintenance costs, is contingent upon a well-trained IT federal workforce capable of managing the design, integration, and fielding of IT technology. The roles played by each agency s Enterprise and Solutions s will be key to the successful implementation of the Federal IT and E -Gov Initiatives. Enterprise s design the information and technology frameworks to implement the agency s IT strategic vision and therefore must possess both the technical and managerial expertise required to achieve the target architecture. Standardization of terminology and establishment of baseline federal EA competencies will facilitate Enterprise ure efforts across the Federal Government. Background What is Enterprise ure? Enterprise ure (EA) links the business mission, strategy, and processes of an organization to its IT strategy. It is documented using multiple architectural models or vi ews that show how the current and future needs of an organization will be met. By focusing on strategic differentiators and working across the enterprise, there is a unique opportunity to create leverage and synergies and avoid duplication and inconsistencies across the enterprise. The key components of the EA are:?? Accurate representation of the business environment, strategy and critical success factors?? Comprehensive documentation of business units and key processes?? Views of the systems and data that support these processes?? A set of technology standards that define what technologies and products are approved to be used within an organization, complemented by prescriptive enterprise-wide guidelines on how to best apply these technology standards in creating business applications. In essence, the EA defines the target architecture at a given point in the future that is necessary to support the business mission and strategy of an organization. The box below provides two definitions of an EA by the Federal CIO Council and the Meta Group, an IT consulting firm. Enterprise ure is a strategic information asset bas e, which defines the business mission, the information necessary to perform the mission, the technologies necessary to perform the mission, and the transitional processes for implementing new technologies in response to the changing mission needs. IFEAD, 2003 Federal CIO Council Enterprise ure is the holistic expression of an organization s key business, information, application and technology strategies and their impact on business functions and processes. The approach looks at business processes, the structure of the organization, and what type of technology is used to conduct these business processes. Meta Group, Inc.

2 Enterprise ures typically includes a baseline architecture, a target architecture, and a transition plan for moving from the baseline to the target. The target architecture components may be justified using business cases developed by the enterprise architecture team. At a minimum, EA is documented using the following architectural models: Business architecture - addresses the business mission, strategy, line of businesses, organization structure, business process models, business functions, etc. Information architecture (also known as data architecture) - defines what information needs to be made available to accomplish the mission, to whom, and how. Application architecture (also known as functional architecture) - focuses on the application portfolio required to support the business mission and information needs of the organization. At the next level of detail, it addresses the common business components and business services that can be leveraged by multiple applications. Technology architecture - defines the technology services needed to support the application portfolio of the business. It also documents the software, hardware, and network product standards. John Zachman is the world's leading expert on Enterprise ure, and author of the internationally renowned Framework for Enterprise ure, which has set the standard on how an organization should develop, implement, and maintain an Enterprise ure. Additional work by Steven Spewak and others, as well as the Federal CIO Council itself, has resulted in ever increasing maturity of enterprise architecture efforts across the commercial sector and the federal government. EA Across the Federal Government Executive Order 13011, Federal Information Technology, established the Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council as the principal inter-agency forum for improving practices in the design, modernization, use, sharing, and performance of Federal information resources. The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 assigned the CIOs with the responsibility to develop information technology architectures (ITAs). The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-130, Management of Federal Information Resources, November 28, 2000, requires agencies to ensure consistency with Federal, agency, and bureau Enterprise ures and to demonstrate consistency through compliance with agency business requirements and standards. In support of these mandates, the Federal CIO Council developed and published the Federal Enterprise ure Framework (FEAF) in September 1999, to promote shared development for common Federal processes, interoperability, and sharing of information among the Agencies of the Federal Government and other Governmental entities. In serving the strategic needs and direction of the Federal Government, the Federal CIO Council seeks to develop, maintain, and facilitate the implementation of the top-level Enterprise ure for the Federal Enterprise. The Framework consists of various approaches, models, and definitions for communicating the overall organization and relationships of architecture components required for developing and maintaining a Federal Enterprise ure. In response to the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996, and the FEAF, most federal agencies have initiated efforts to create EA awareness or to build an EA management foundation. The scope of these EA projects has ranged from functional area or sub-agency architectures (Zachman verticals) to agency-wide definitions (Zachman horizontals) that extensively leverage process and technology commonality within an agency. In 2001, The President s E-Government Taskforce identified 24 Presidential Priority E-Gov initiatives that are potentially transformational in nature and offer the opportunity to simplify, unify and consolidate processes used by the Federal Government. These Initiatives will enable the Federal Government to better serve the public, promote interactions across governmental organizations, and perform business activities while continuously improving internal efficiency and effectiveness. The OMB s Federal Enterprise ure Program Management Office (FEAPMO) has continuing stewardship responsibilities for these E-Gov Initiatives, as they become the first real instantiation of the Federal Enterprise ure (FEA). Whereas the Federal CIO Council defined a framework for the FEA in 1999, the FEAPMO, with the support of the Federal CIO Council, is now in the process of developing a Federal Enterprise ure. FEAPMO is developing five reference models: performance, data, services components, technical, and business. Working jointly, these models will drive standardization and cross agency collaboration opportunities. 2

3 They will also provide a structured approach to analyze overlapping functions, identify similarities across agencies, and provide a means by which agencies can leverage best practices from each other promot ing reuse in the government. The FEA is intended to provide a consistent, industry-aligned approach for defining and communicating the components needed to cost and plan E-Gov programs both the 24 Presidential Priority E-Gov Initiatives and other IT initiatives across the Federal Government. It is based on the business requirements derived from the priority initiatives as well as system engineering design best practices. Such an approach is essential if the Federal Government is to 1) leverage information technology investments and avoid unnecessary duplication of infrastructure and major components, 2) link business processes through shared, yet sufficiently protected information systems, and 3) leverage disparate business processes, services and activities that are located outside Agency boundaries. Enterprise s and Solutions s At its core, Enterprise ure and Solutions ure (SA) differ primarily in business scope and the breadth of business and technical issues analyzed. While the Enterprise studies and defines solutions for the entire enterprise or agency, the Solutions is generally concerned primarily with studying and defining solutions for a single system, department or solution area within an agency. Both Enterprise and Solutions s deal with the same fundamental business and technology issues: alignment with core agency business strategies, business process simplification and the implementation of information technology that enables the realization of key business objectives. However, the Enterprise is concerned with business issues, process optimization and technology standardization at an agency level or, in the case of the FEAPMO, across the Federal Government at large. The Solutions is concerned with these same issues, but on a smaller scale and within the scope of a single project or system. Enterprise s and Solutions s most often do not operate independently, however. Enterprise s often help guide the implementation of EA standards in the development and deployment of targeted solutions and Solutions s often play key focused technical and business roles on EA projects and ongoing initiatives. Solutions s often seek the guidance of Enterprise s to help interpret EA components and Enterprise s may act as internal consultants to the Solutions ure team. This interdependence and dynamic role shifting occurs normally in the life cycle of EA and solution development. Historically, Solutions s have been classified in a variety of ways in the commercial and government sectors. Most typically, a System would lead the design of a system or solution. In turn, the system architect would be responsible for a group of specialized architects such as the data, software, network, security and hardware architects. Some projects created a role called Chief Solutions, supported by architects classified as business, application, systems management, infrastructure and network architects. Many other variations on architect and architecture classification and nomenclature exist to this day. Standardization of the classification of Solutions s across the Federal Government would reduce much of the current confusion and facilitate both enterprise architecture and solutions architecture efforts. Organizational Relationships of a Typical Enterprise ure The actual staffing and management within a public or private organization would be based on the complexity of its IT projects and the fluidity of its subject matter experts collaborating on multiple projects. It is acknowledged that there are no hard core standards today regarding the organization and execution of EA projects. However, a review of EA initiatives across the Federal Government and private industry will overwhelmingly support the working relationships shown below. EA projects need to leverage the best agency talent available for each role, so multiple roles can be filled by a single architect and, conversely, a single role can be performed by multiple architects. At the Enterprise level, roles and responsibilities generally remain static; however, the Solutions/Project s roles change, depending on the scope and complexity of a particular project. A Chief Solutions and various subordinate Solutions s may be called upon to provide specialized expertise for larger scaled projects. On the other hand, when implementing a small-scale solution for a particular department, Enterprise s may use a single Solutions with specialized knowledge in the toolset to be implemented. 3

4 Although Enterprise s guide the overall architecture and Solutions/Project s implement the solutions, both groups work collaboratively to share direction, knowledge, and resources. The following diagram illustrates the typical organizational relationship between the Enterprise s and Solutions s. Typical Enterprise ure Roles/Relationships Enterprise ure s Team Chief Enterprise Enterprise (Business) Enterprise (Information) Enterprise (Application) Enterprise (Technology) Solutions Project (or Project) or Solution s Team Team Chief Solutions Shares direction, standards, knowledge, insights and resources Solutions (Presentation) Solutions (Platforms and DB) Solutions (Business Logic) Solutions (Security) Solutions (Messaging) Each of the major roles and responsibilities is described below: Chief Enterprise. The Chief Enterprise has overall responsibility for all of the enterprise architectures and their ability to meet agency needs. This is an architectural design role, rather than a management responsibility. Key responsibilities include:?? Define an enterprise-wide documentation standard for architectures.?? Define an enterprise-wide set of policies and principles for architectures.?? Keeps appraised of emerging technologies to evolve enterprise IT architecture with more efficient and effective standards. Enterprise. The Enterprise is responsible for the definition and use of one of the enterprise architectures (Business, Informat ion, Applications, or Technology). The Enterprise must have a broad view of the entire organization/agency. This person is a leader in business strategy, vision, and overall information technology systems and architecture. Key responsibilities include:?? Develop and maintain the architecture, working with the other enterprise architects to ensure consistency and completeness, and seeking approval for changes from the Chief Enterprise, if not the same person/office.?? Document the enter prise architecture using approved documentation standards.?? Define and maintain policies and principles relevant to their specific architecture.?? Perform vitality process to ensure architecture continues to reflect agency needs and technical opportunities. Chief Solutions. The Chief Solutions provides the overall technical leadership throughout the lifecycle of a single project or business solution in the areas of data, application and technology. While the Chief Solutions is not generally part of the permanent Enterprise ure team, the Chief Solutions plays a vital role in the success of the Enterprise ure, ensuring adherence to EA standards, seeking the guidance of EA team members and providing feedback to the EA process. The Chief Solutions 4

5 may also participate in one or more project tracks of the EA program as a technical or business area specialist. Key responsibilities include:?? Establish the overall solutions architecture framework to guide the design of a business application and the implementation of selected infrastructures such as technologies, platforms, databases, data communications, data discovery and modeling strategy, data access strategy, standards, procedures, processes, quality assurance, training, and other components needed to support the architecture and make it functional.?? Create the high -level technical design and detail technical design.?? Participate in development environment setup, production environment setup, programming, unit testing, final delivery to the Integration Test Team and installation in the production environment.?? Assist with the resolution of design-related issues during system development. Solutions. The Solutions provides services in support of the Chief Solutions, generally for the implementation of a single business solution or project. Whereas the EA Team prescribes standards and direction, the Solutions ure teams actually implement solutions in the context of a focused project or program. Solutions s generally have an area of specialization such as presentation, platforms, databases, business logic, security or messaging. Like the Chief Solutions, Solutions s generally do not participate directly in the formulation of enterprise architectures but often seek the guidance of the EA team to clarify standards and to better understand how to implement the stated business direction. Solutions s who are the leading subject matter or business experts within an agency may also be called upon to participate in the EA process on a temporary or long-term basis in the role of a Consulting Solutions. Solutions s also are an important part of the EA feedback loop, providing updated business, data and system views as well as refinements to important EA standards. Proposed Clinger-Cohen EA Competencies Based on the normative approach to EA projects across the federal and private sector, the following are the key areas of responsibility for which competencies and learning objectives will be added to the Clinger-Cohen competencies:?? Chief Enterprise/Enterprise s?? Chief Solutions/Consulting Solutions s These areas of responsibility are not intended to constrain the manner in which individual agencies conduct EA efforts, but rather are provided only as a framework for the definition of EA competencies and learning objectives. Chief Enterprise The Chief Enterprise is a highly experienced IT architect who has a broad and deep understanding of the agency s overall business strategy and general IT trends and directions. A summary of key competencies includes:?? Strong grasp of the value of IT investment in terms of costs, benefits and strategic value?? Extensive knowledge of the agency, its drivers, issues, and strategic directions and plans?? Extensive knowledge of IT capabilities, covering current and emerging technologies?? Able to define an architectural evolution towards the technical strategy in achievable stages?? Experience in a variety of complex architecture projects, able to lead and direct architects?? Highly visible across the agency, opinions and decisions are respected?? Able to lead the development of complex business cases?? Must have depth and breadth of the overall organization, its business needs and objectives?? Is a facilitator of change?? Must be a great communicator Enterprise The Enterprise is an experienced architect, with additional specialized skills in his or her specific Enterprise ure area. A summary of key competencies includes: 5

6 ?? A basic grounding in the agency s environment, strategy and priorities?? Extensive knowledge of IT capabilities, covering current and emerging technologies?? Good knowledge of how similar agencies use or plan to use technology?? Ability to rationalize technology opportunities and business drivers optimizing return on investment?? Familiar with agency s architectural principles and policies, able to interpret and apply?? Hands on experience in architecture, able to perform a number of architectural tasks?? Must have a mixture of BPR, business processes, and meeting facility?? Strong in capability modeling?? Can define and understand component capabilities and apply solutions?? Ability to look at technology trends and effectively apply to business/project needs?? Ability to look at and define target architecture for speciality projects?? Ability to manage a repository - repository modeling and analysis?? Competency in several tool sets?? Ability to manage a project portal to identify concepts, work in progress, etc.?? Able to identify redundancies among existing and proposed IT efforts?? Ability to bring together an overall Enterprise ure from several individual EA efforts?? Ability to develop the crux functional integration services that can be implemented in patterns Consulting Solutions The Consulting Solutions is a Solutions or Chief Solutions that provides specialist architectural services to an EA effort when required on a temporary or advisory basis. Specialist areas may include a particular application or business area, or a specific technical skill such as middleware, security, systems management, and so on, indeed the complete spectrum of Solutions capabilities. Most often, the Consulting Solutions is an agency resource, although contractors are often used in this role. A summary of key competencies includes:?? Well grounded in the agency s architectural principles and policies?? Good grounding in the basic capabilities of a given technology or product?? Familiar with agency s enterprise architecture, able to interpret and apply?? System and technical ure skills, strong both on theory and on practical implementation?? Hands on experience in architecture, able to perform a number of architectural tasks?? Strong technical expertise in one or more technology areas?? Ability to identify and be aware of different levels of EA?? Ability to perform capability model scenarios Appendix A contains the overarching EA competencies to be incorporated into the Clinger-Cohen competencies, along with the associated learning objectives. Mechanisms for Feedback The Federal CIO Workforce and Human Capital Committee for IT seeks your feedback on this material in order to gain wide consensus across the federal IT community. Biennial reviews of EA roles and competencies will be conducted during the update of the Clinger -Cohen Competencies to ensure alignment with current normative practices. 6

7 APPENDIX A--CLINGER-COHEN COMPETENCY LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE Suggested Competency 11.0 Enterprise ure General Discussion: An enterprise architecture (EA) establishes an agencywide roadmap to achieve the agency s mission through optimal performance of its core business processes within an efficient information technology (IT) environment. Enterprise architectures are blueprints for systematically and completely defining an organization s current (baseline) or desired (target) environment. Enterprise architectures are essential for evolving information systems and developing new systems that optimize their mission value. This is accomplished in logical or business terms (e.g., mission, business functions, information flows, and systems environments) and technical terms (e.g., software, hardware, communications), and includes a sequencing plan for transitioning from the baseline environment to the target environment. (source: CIO Council Federal Enterprise ure Version 1.0) Proposed Competency and Learning Objectives 11.0 Enterprise ure 11.0 LO 1 Discuss the Clinger-Cohen mandate for developing IT-enabled business solutions according to an enterprise architecture framework. 1

8 Enterprise architecture functions and governance Possible jobs include: Enterprise, Solutions, (Business, Data, Security Systems/IA, etc.). Governance includes steering or executive committees, policies, procedures and processes Enterprise architecture functions and governance 11.1 LO 1 Identify and describe potential architectural roles and responsibilities within an organization, such as the Chief or Enterprise and Solutions s LO 2 Describe how IT visionary strategic planning is related to enterprise/program visionary planning LO 3 List and discuss the Federal architecture guidance for business and technology drivers. Include GPEA, FOIA, GPRA, OMB Circulars A-130 and A-11, GAO and the Federal CIO Council and discuss the importance of each LO 4 Describe the role of the Federal CIO EA Governance Subcommittee in implementing Enterprise ure throughout the Federal Government LO 5 Identify the enterprise architecture responsibilities of various agency managerial groups such as the Technical Review Committee, Capital Investment Council, and Executive Steering Committee. 2

9 Key enterprise architecture concepts 11.2 Key enterprise architecture concepts Includes but not limited to: frameworks, reference models, architecture drivers, architecture components, architecture products or artifacts, architecture life-cycle management, metadata, component-based architecture, security standards, etc LO 1 Identify and describe the main elements of an enterprise architecture, including architecture drivers, strategic direction, current and target architectures, the sequencing plan, architectural segments and models, and standards LO 2 Describe business reasons for developing an enterprise architecture (EA) and discuss benefits that can be derived from successful implementation of a sound EA LO 3 Describe the technology architectures, i.e., systems, hardware, software, and communications LO 4 Describe ongoing developments as well as current mainstream standards for web information, web services and enterprise application integration. Include discussion of other key technologies such as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) initiative LO 5 Compare and contrast the dimensions of different architectural frameworks. Discuss Federal and DoD architecture frameworks LO 6 Describe the use of reference models in identifying software components, component functions and the relationships among them. Discuss the benefits of model and artifact repositories LO 7 Compare and contrast the key elements of widely used reference models such as the Technical ure Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) model, Common Object Request Broker ure (CORBA) model and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) model LO 8 Describe the OMB Federal reference model initiative and discuss its utilization within the Federal Enterprise ure LO 9 Discuss the latest changes in commercial architectural constructs, including Service Oriented ures (SOA); Model Driven ures (MDA); and ural Patterns and Profiles LO 10 Discuss the need for security as it relates to and is integrated into the enterprise architecture. Include issues such as crossrealm security, security consequences of aggregated 3

10 Key enterprise architecture concepts continued architectural data, common identity management approaches, and revocation/repudiation mechanisms. Development and maintenance of an enterprise architecture 11.3 Enterprise architecture development and maintenance 11.3 LO 1 Characterize the baseline architecture of an organization s/agency s IT/IRM LO 2 Evaluate the value of the CRUD matrix (Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete) when developing architectures LO 3 Describe basic architecture development methodologies (e.g., Object Oriented, Structured Analysis, etc) LO4 Justify the need to build or develop a history of the organization s architecture and the business cases that were used to support it LO 5 Discuss the need for, and the development of a transition (sequencing) plan to move IT from where it is to where it will be going LO 6 Create a notional migration chart to document planned evolution from baseline to target architecture LO 7 Describe the multi-dimensional nature of architecture and its need to evolve over time LO 8 Discuss the strategic planning process and its importance in anticipating and forecasting the impact of future trends LO 9 Compare, contrast and evaluate internal and external sources of information that will assure awareness and understanding of new and emerging technology and its business implications LO 10 Describe and define the role that IT architectural principles play in establishing an enterprise architecture LO 11 Walk students through the process of developing an enterprise architecture to include the information, technical, business and data aspects. 4

11 Use of enterprise architecture in IT investment decision making (e.g., requirements analysis and identification, budgeting and acquisition process) 11.4 Use of enterprise architecture in IT investment decision making 11.4 LO 1 Assess the agency s baseline architecture in terms of its effectiveness in meeting enterprise/program strategic goals and performance goals and identify gaps that should be addressed LO 2 Describe the ways in which a strategic plan, annual performance plan, specific architecture requirements, and the capital planning process must drive the acquisition strategy LO 3 Describe the potential difficulties in implementing competin g IT architectural principles and the need to document resolution of conflicting decisions LO 4 Given the rate of change in IT, as well as changing agency requirements, describe strategies for creating an adaptive budgeting process to support the enterprise architecture LO 5 Identify and evaluate the range of alternatives to acquisition that should be explored in the pre-phase of the project. Include the role of technology, reengineering, architecture, training, processes, procedures, elimination of functions, etc, in the listing of alternatives LO 6 Describe the relationship between the Federal Enterprise ure Business Review Model and capital planning. Include discussion of OMB Circulars A-11 and A LO 7 Discuss the importance of mapping major IT capital investments to the organization s strategic plans and business lines, in accordance with an agency s enterprise architecture. 5

12 Interpretation of enterprise architecture models, artifacts, and other types of descriptions 11.5 Interpretation of enterprise architecture models and artifacts 11.5 LO 1 Discuss and compare at least two enterprise architecture models and popular tools to assist in building them LO 2 Identify the reasons that a CIO would need to know the status of the current technology architecture, including systems documentation, equipment inventories, network configuration diagrams, policies, and procedures. Describe the process by which current technology architecture, including platforms, networks, etc., is identified LO 3 Discuss the importance and key aspects of model interpretation in understanding and sharing metadata, integration and component reuse, and achieving interoperability. 6

13 Data management 11.6 Data management 11.6 LO 1 Discuss the value of relating information management and data management plans to the use of information by the agency LO 2 Discuss the criticality of data interoperability and the role of data standardization in it LO 3 Contrast information management with data management LO 4 Discuss reliability and validity of data issues, including originating source and processing of the data LO 5 List and describe the attributes (availability, accessibility, security, volatility, us ability, manipulability, etc.) of data management LO 6 Discuss both traditional and emerging concepts and technologies of data management including process modeling; Enterprise Application Integration (EAI); data cleaning; data modeling; intelligent agents, tools and applications; data mining; data warehousing; and data exchange and interchange LO 7 Describe and analyze problems of scale. Measure, evaluate and justify the cost and value of data and data quality. 7

14 Performance measurement for enterprise architectures 11.7 Performance measurement for enterprise architecture 11.7 LO 1 Define and describe performance goals and distinguish performance goals from performance standards LO 2 Discuss and describe the role of IT performance goals and standards with respect to the enterprise/program strategic plan, general goals and performance goals LO 3 Identify tools that can be used to establish performance indicators for a CIO s dashboard for enterprise architecture performance. See 5.3 LO 2, 5.5 LO 3, and 5.6 LO LO 4 Evaluate various IT performance analysis and assessment processes in regards to enterprise architecture. 8